This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Cal Poly chapter.
Since its first release on Netflix back in 2013, Orange is the New Black has been a phenomenal success, earning multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, and has recently been commissioned for three more seasons.
For those who have yet to embrace the offbeat charm of this comedy-drama set in a women’s prison in upstate New York, it is based on the real-life memoir of Piper Kerman. In 2004, Kerman spent a year in federal prison for her involvement in an international drug operation, which she had been drawn into through her girlfriend at the time.
Her story formed the premise of the show, but since the first season, it quickly moved into developing various stories for its eclectic range of supporting characters. The show has definitely done a lot to create strong and complex roles for women-especially those from minority backgrounds-and has undoubtedly made its viewers aware of some of the issues faced by women in prison.
Whilst the premise of the show has evidently raised awareness of some of the issues faced by women in prison, particularly with the focus on the character’s background stories, it is predominantly marketed as a comedy. The main draw of the show is the on-off relationship of the central characters, Piper and Alex, as well as the friendships between the inmates, which means the harsh reality and sheer scale of the incarceration of women in this country is often forgotten.
Overall, the US has a higher number of people in prison than all other developed countries, with women being the fastest growing segment of the incarcerated population. Women imprisoned in the US make up a third of the world’s female prison population as a whole, and are in the top three worst offenders for females as a percentage of the total number of people incarcerated. Most of those imprisoned are not there for the extreme cases portrayed by the characters in the show, but for low-level non-violent drug crimes, as a consequence of the ‘The War on Drugs’ and mandatory minimum sentencing for drug-related crimes.
Whilest the number of women may seem small in relation to the prison population as a whole, the effect on families and communities is much greater. In the show, the issue of the impact on children is touched on, with the story of Daya and her mother both being imprisoned for related drug crimes, the reality is a far bleaker picture, with 65 percent of incarcerated women reporting to have children at home. It is only relatively recently that research has been done into the impact on children of having a parent incarcerated, and the effects range from social inclusion and an increased chance of mental health issues, to a greater chance of offending as an adult. Families impacted by the justice system are also much more likely to be in poverty.
One side of the issue Orange is the New Black is better at portraying is the racial groups that make up the female prison population. It is three times more likely for black women to be incarcerated than white women, making up 30 percent of the female prison population, although they only represent 13 percent of the population of women in the US. A similar trend can be seen, to a slightly lesser extent, with Hispanic women. Although the show definitely highlights the issue of race and segregation within prisons, it is often reduced to being used for comedic effect. This is definitely one way to raise awareness of the issue, and ultimately the main aim of the show is to entertain, but it is equally important to recognizse the true nature of the racial discrimination that goes on within the justice system.
Due to the stigma and stereotypes that are associated with people in prison, the rights of women, in particular, are often neglected. The nature of the private prison system in the United States is built in a way that automatically discriminates against poor, and often Black or Hispanic communities, and means that they receive higher sentences for the same crimes. The author of ‘Orange is the New Black’, Piper Kerman, has dedicated her life to justice reform, and fighting for the rights of women in prisons. In California, there are a number of organizsations dedicated to this cause, such as ‘A New Way of Life Reentry Project,’ which helps formerly incarcerated women integrate back into their communities and avoid re-entry, and ‘California Coalition for Women Prisoners’.